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Friday, January 08, 2016

Rebranding Conservative Judaism – Will it Work?

Conservative Rabbi Steven Wernick

I can’t emphasize enough how misguided the approach of
Conservative Movement is in trying to retain their members. The New York Post tells
us that Rabbi Steven Wernick - head of the Conservative’s organizational arm,
the United Synagogue - has ordered a makeover for the movement. Having lost one
third of its adherents over the last 25 years he has hired a marketing firm to
give them a now look. He wants to rebrand Conservative Judaism. From the Post:

New York’s Good Omen agency is interviewing hundreds of
Conservative Jews to get their views on the movement in order to develop a new
“position statement” for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

That they are going this route truly speaks to the desperation of the movement. They are in essence saying that they will change their
identity in order to attract new people. They will find out what the
modern Jew is looking for and morph into it.

That approach misses the entire point of Judaism. Judaism is
not a religion of wants and desires. It is a religion – a way of life really –
that requires things of us. Judaism is not a theme park where people go to have
fun. And when they get tired of it, change it into something they are not tired
of.

T

he Conservative Movement caters to the spirit of the times. Not the will of God as expressed in His
Torah. Back in the old days it was the melting pot. In recent times
it was feminism. More
recently it was LGBT concerns.

Apparently that isn’t working out too well for them. Female
and gay rabbis have obviously not increased their numbers.

There has been a lot
of discussion by them about this problem. Both internal and public. There have even been some decent suggestions
about how to change things. But they are now going
to Madison Avenue to rebrand themselves. This will not help them.

The things they have done in the past haven’t worked for them
because those things do not require religion. Catering to the melting pot
causes assimilation. Which leads away from religion. Same thing with feminism.
You don’t need religion for that. either. Even a positive Torah value they advocate like Tikun Olam can be pursued
without belonging to any religion.

So what is it they can do? At this point it might very well
be too late. The one thing that had any chance at all of working was providing a strong formal Jewish education for their children. It is Jewish education that explains the
success of Orthodox Judaism. A phenomenon
that had not gone unnoticed by some of their brighter lights. Mimicking Orthodoxy’s emphasis on Jewish education that
may have saved them. Had they been determined to make it succeed.

But they tried it and failed. There are many reasons
why it failed,some of it having to do with the enormous cost to parents. If I understand correctly Their religious school system is far more
expensive on the average that Orthodox schools. But it isn’t only about the
expense.It is about the parents being motivated enough to care.

My guess is
that most Conservative Jews do care about their children having some religion in
their lives. But not enough to spend exorbitant amounts of money on it. They
would just as soon send their children to a public school and teach them about
Judaism at home.

But that hasn’t worked out too well. How much does the average
Conservative Jew even know about his own Judaism to teach it to their children? And now those kids are dropping out of
Judaism like flies. They are intermarrying at record numbers without giving a thought to their
Judaism. They just don’t care. Which is why the Conservative
movement is scrambling to do something about it.

I can’t predict the future. But rebranding is a waste of time, in my view.
If you are trying to make yourself into something people want instead of
teaching them the value of what you actually are, you are doomed to the continuing failure you experience now. Even if you turn the Conservative
Movement into Disneyland. It won't work. People will get tired of that too.

This doesn’t mean you can’t make yourself more
attractive. You should. But being attractive can’t be what you are all about. Once
you attract people - then what? Judaism is a religion of substance. It is about
doing the will of God. Not about rebranding yourself.

I agree with Steven M. Cohen, professor of Jewish social
policy at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Form the Post:

Cohen calls the rebranding “helpful,” but isn’t sure it’s
enough to attract new congregants — or stop current ones from defecting. “The real cause of [community] shrinkage is
intermarriage and the decline of ethnic attachment among American Jews,” he
says.

My sincere message to the Conservative movement is the
following. If you want your members to retain their Judaism there is only one real way
to do that. It is through Jewish education. And there is only one system that
is currently successful at doing it. Need I say which one? I also know that many
Conservative rabbis consider it a success when one of their congregants becomes
Orthodox. Need I say more?

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About Me

My outlook on Judaism is based mostly on the teachings of my primary Rebbe, Rabbi Aaron Soloveichik from whom I received my rabbinic ordination. It is also based on a search for spiritual truth. Among the various sources that put me on the right path, two great philosophic works stand out: “Halakhic Man” and “Lonely Man of Faith” authored by the pre-eminent Jewish philosopher and theologian, Rabbi, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Of great significance is Rabbi, Dr. Norman Lamm's conceptualization and models of Torah U’Mada and Dr. Eliezer Berkovits who introduced me to the world of philosophic thought. Among my early influences were two pioneers of American Elementary Torah Chinuch, Rabbis Shmuel Kaufman and Yaakov Levi. The Yeshivos I attended were Yeshivas Telshe for early high school and more significantly, the Hebrew Theological College where for a period of ten years, my Rebbeim included such great Rabbinic figures as Rabbis Mordechai Rogov, Shmaryahu Meltzer, Yaakov Perlow, Herzl Kaplan, and Selig Starr. I also attended Roosevelt University where I received my Bachelor's Degree - majoring in Psychology.